That Which Does Not
by Chilord
Summary: In which Pyrrha Nikos discovers that training Jaune Arc comes with more... complexities than would at first be visible, and they spread.


Title: That which does not.

Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum.

Author's Notes: I had 2 things in common with Monty Oum, how old we were and what city we lived in. When he passed, it hit me relatively hard, not because I knew him, but because this was someone who was so talented, who had so much going for him and had so many accomplishments. Someone who seemed to have so much more to offer the world than I did.

And then he was just gone. That fast. I didn't actually watch RWBY until he did, I was a fan of his earlier works, but I hadn't taken the time to watch the series, not more than the admittedly interesting trailers.

Then he passed, and I decided to change that.

I read that his wife said the best we could offer in way of tribute/condolences was creation.

So, I decided to create. And in doing so, I hope to bring a few more smiles and a bit more laughter into the world that has lost a bit of its wonder in a reminder that life isn't fair to anyone.

I originally planned to make this into a series, to add to it... but, I really found that I wasn't ever sure where to go with it.

Finally, I figured I'd just publish it as a one shot.

After all the things going on with lately the censor ship, the blocking of links etc etc etc, I think I'm going to move publishing my finished works to Archive of Our Own. Same user name.

And for those

-o-o-o-

Jaune Arc took one look at the course in front of him and then looked towards his expectant partner, Pyrrha Nikos. "So, through that, huh?"

"Yes, Jaune," she agreed with a nod of her head as she crossed her arms about her chest. "You're ready for this."

"Um…" Jaune again eyed the way the heavy pendulum blades swung across the path, between where fragile tiles were suspended, perfectly balanced on spikes. "Pyrrha?"

"You can do this," she stated with a firm nod.

Then the flames leapt up.

"Aiyeee!" Jaune was suddenly being held up by Pyrrha, clutching against her as he stared in terrified horror at what he now knew to be flame jets. "You didn't say anything about flamethrowers!"

"Jaune." Pyrrha fought down the blush that heated up across her cheeks and slowly pushed him off of her. "I know you can do this. You've already shown that you can."

"But, flamethrowers!" Jaune whined lightly. "What's next? Poison darts? Rabid zombie grimms? Tesla towers? _BEES?!_ "

"… Bees are a perfectly time honored hunter tradition," Pyrrha stated as she coughed and looked at everything but him, as she discreetly pushed a few buttons on the training console, caging the artificial grimm and shutting the dart tubes, powering down the tesla coils.

"That's what they always say," Jaune stated, eyes suddenly staring into the distance as he started to shake. "'Jaune, this is a time honored tradition. If you're going to be a hunter, you can handle a few bees!'"

He shrank down as the memories came unbidden. "Then there's the slathering you in pollen, dressing you up in nothing but petals, and dumping you naked into the biggest group of bee colonies you can find. Who cares if you're so allergic to the pollen that you can't see and when you can, you're too busy sneezing to keep your eyes open?

"Oh, and let's pick the only bee colonies in the area with _Grimm_ Bees!" Jaune didn't even take note of Pyrrha anymore, lost in the memories of running through town, naked except for the oversized petals decorating his neck, being chased by a combination of normal and Grimm Bees.

"Bees are going to get me. Buzzing and stinging and biting and going in places bees should not go!" Jaune was huddled down now, rocking back and forth, eyes distant and unseeing. "Evil, evil bees!"

Pyrrha pouted a bit. "Now, Jaune, they're not _that_ bad…"

"I was _5_!" Jaune protested with a whimper.

Sighing, she flicked something on the console. "Fine, Jaune, no bees. Now, will you please try?"

"… No bees?" He looked up, uncertain.

"No bees," she agreed with a nod.

Standing back up, Jaune quickly dusted himself off. "Um… About the whole breaking down into a blubbering mess because of the… b-bees… Could we, ah, forget all about that?"

"Already forgotten," she assured him quickly.

Walking up to the start line, he took a deep breath and stared at the variety of shiny and pointy looking death. "… Through there, right?"

"Yes, Jaune," Pyrrha said patiently. "You can do this."

"Right. I can do this," he agreed, repeating it over and over to himself. "I can do this. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Letting out a yell, Jaune ran forward into the obstacle course.

Pyrrha immediately winced at the carnage that occurred next as Jaune managed to stumble over the first challenge, which somehow caused a cascade of trips and fumbles that left him seated in the middle of collapsed machinery, covered in oil.

She stared. She honestly couldn't help it. "… Jaune?"

"… Um, yes?" he asked from where he was seated on the floor.

"… Did you just _break_ the training course?"

"… I don't know, maybe?" He was shifting slightly and looking about at the course, wisps of smoke starting to appear from the seams of machinery. "Does that mean we're done for the day?"

"Jaune, do you know how many lien one of these courses costs?" Pyrrha asked as she remembered pricing them out after she'd earned a number of her promotional gigs.

"If it broke that easily, it can't be that much, right?" He looked at her, eyes full of hope and pleading.

"Jaune. You managed to do in five seconds what professional testers couldn't do in six months." Pyrrha stated with a mix of awe and disbelief.

"Eighteen, actually, Ms. Nikos," A new voice cut in as Professor Ozpin appeared, surveying the damage as he sipped his customary drink. "I have to admit, I am slightly impressed. I don't believe we've ever had a student destroy one of our courses in my entire tenure at this academy."

"Oops?" Jaune offered as Pyrrha palmed her face.

"At least you didn't use the bees," Ozpin noted after taking another sip. "I don't believe we need another Granberry incident."

Jaune hung his head as Pyrrha blinked owlishly. "… Um, sir, wasn't that…"

"The town that ended up covered in honey?" Ozpin finished, and nodded his head. "Your sisters had quite the time explaining things after that, Mr. Arc."

"It was the bees!" Jaune insisted as he shrank in on himself, curling into a fetal position and beginning to rock himself gently. "The Beeeeeeees."

"Indeed," Ozpin agreed with a consolatory nod of his head. "Rest assured, Mr. Arc, as soon as I heard about your existence on our rolls, I confirmed there is not a single bee within twent miles of Beacon."

Pyrrha looked confused at that. "But, you just said..."

"Mechanical bees only, simulated to behave remarkably like normal bees," Ozpin stated swiftly. "Though, I have to admit, the horticulture club was rather put out that they had to give up their colony."

"Beeeeees!" Jaune cried again.

"But I thought that you…" Pyrrha started to state before realizing what she was saying and quickly shut her mouth.

"Really, Ms. Nikos, did you honestly think that a not even first year student could fool the entire Beacon staff?" Ozpin sounded… bemused more than anything. "I am well aware of exactly how Mr. Arc came to be at Beacon."

He paused and then sipped is drink. "After all, how do you think he managed to come across a set of perfect papers for admittance?"

Pyrrha just stared at him.

"Bees!" Jaune commented.

"Mr. Arc has not had the most… conventional of training," Ozpin noted with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Sadly, his parents were both hunters. His mother returned to the hunt shortly after his birth. Too soon, in fact."

Pyrrha stared at Jaune in new light before looking back at Ozpin. "Then…"

"While a hunter's… _severance_ package for their families is substantial, even two of them were never meant to handle eight children and multiple debts. His sisters took to training him. They had their hearts in the right places, but sadly…" He shrugged helplessly. "They seemed to have gotten most of their training ideas from shounen manga.

"Hence why the six time reigning Vale Junior Dance champion didn't understand how to even stand properly," Ozpin noted as he took another sip. "A pity; his tango in the finals last year was sublime."

She couldn't help it: her jaw dropped as she stared back at Ozpin.

"He… tangos?" she repeated with a stare before frowning. "Wait, then why didn't Weiss recognize him? She's…"

"Her sister is the dancer of the family," Ozpin admitted. "Well, not entirely accurate. Ms. Schnee is a performer; she does not involve herself in such competitions. Add to that her rather… _strained_ relationship with her sister and…"

"Ah." Pyrrha slowly nodded his head. "… Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, I would prefer for you to no longer involve the school's equipment in Mr. Arc's training," he stated rather bluntly. "While we do have a rather substantial budget, I'm afraid it's not really sustainable with Mr. Arc's current… tendencies."

She blinked and then blinked again. "But, how will we train then?"

"Somewhere that collateral damage will not be a problem," Ozpin stated calmly. "I have a list of suspected White Fang bases where you can…"

"… What?"

"Well, it was a thought," Ozpin admitted with a shrug before sipping his drink again. "If nothing else I would suggest focusing on mastering his aura and awakening his semblance before attempting further physical training. I don't think the four kingdoms combined could afford to pay for the training equipment otherwise."

"But…"

"For now, though, I believe I will contact the company and inform them that we apparently had an unexpected catastrophic failure with one of our courses." He nodded to Pyrrha. "Have a good day, Ms. Nikos."

"I…"

"Bees." Jaune stated again.

-o-o-o-

Weiss Schnee stared at her scroll for a long moment and then looked back at Pyrrha, her jaw hanging slightly. "What?"

"Yes." Pyrrha agreed.

"… Six times?" Weiss repeated as she looked back at the scroll in disbelief.

"Concurrently," she agreed and sighed before pointing to the next section. "And then there's that."

"… How did I not know about this?" Weiss demanded as she stared. "I mean… How is this even possible?!"

Pyrrha buried her face in her hands. "Look at the next link."

Weiss did so.

"… I…" Weiss could not find the words to describe what she saw. "WHAT?!"

"Yes," Pyrrha agreed with a nod of her head, her face still buried in her hands.

"… ARC!" Weiss demanded, her voice rising to a particularly angry pitch.

"Errr, yes, Weiss?" Jaune glanced back at her, confusion written on his face.

"Explain. Now!" She practically shoved her scroll against his face.

"What…?" Jaune paused a moment leaning back so he could get a look at it before falling off his seat and landing on his back. "Ow."

"This!" she demanded, holding her scroll above his face.

"Oh. Man, people still do that? I guess that explains the badly done pics of us that Winter keeps sending me." Jaune scratched his head and shrugged. "What about it?"

"… Jaune, there are entire sites dedicated to people wanting you in a relationship with my _sister_!" Weiss practically growled.

"… Huh?" Jaune blinked again. "Run that by me again?"

"… Winter Schnee, my sister? The girl they're talking about you being paired up with?" Weiss supplied, glaring at him even harsher.

"Wait, Winter's your sister?" Jaune stared at her. "But… but…"

"Hello! Last name Schnee! Our names are almost the same!" Weiss glowered at Jaune. "How can you not know this?!"

"But you look nothing alike!"Jaune protested.

Pyrrha looked from the picture of Winter Schnee on her phone, then looked to Weiss, and then back again. The girls in the two pictures could've practically been twins.

Weiss stared at Jaune. On one hand, people had been commenting on the similarity between them for as long as she could remember. On the other…

"… Well, at least someone else sees it," Weiss huffed a bit and pulled her scroll back before pausing. "Wait, you're _that_ Jaune?"

"I'm which Jaune?" he parroted back, confusion in his eyes.

"Oh… Oh, gods." Weiss just stared at him. "I… I need to go get some air."

With that said, Weiss promptly fled, her face burning crimson.

"Um… Pyrrha?" Jaune asked in confusion, still laying on his back.

"No, Jaune. I am not explaining it to you," she stated flatly, not even bothering to look up from where her face was still buried in her hands.

"Oh. Ok," Jaune stated before slowly pushing himself up and taking his seat, then frowning. "Hey, where did my pancakes go?"

Ren Lie just looked from Jaune to his partner, Nora Valkyrie. A partner whose cheeks were now bulging out like a chipmunk's.

"Wut?" Nora asked, eyes wide and innocent as a small bit of pancake flew out before she swallowed. "They were pancakes!"

"But… but… my pancakes!" Jaune stared at his almost empty plate, eyes almost glistening.

"Well, you do still have your bacon at least?" Ren offered, as Nora's eyes suddenly sparkled and her hand lifted up.

"No! Not the bacon!" Jaune declared, grabbing it off his plate and clutching it to his chest. "The bacon is mine!"

"Awwwww…" Nora pouted.

And with that, Jaune hastily devoured his precious, slightly syrupy bacon. Then he frowned a bit. "Pyrrha, are you ok?"

"… Jaune…" Pyrrha struggled to find the words to describe the headache all of Ozpin's revelations had planted firmly behind her eyes. "Just… Eat your breakfast, ok? You'll need your energy for later."

"Ooh, more training?" Nora asked eagerly. "How'd you're one this morning go? Was it awesome? It was awesome, wasn't it!"

"Um, not really?" Jaune noted as he looked at Pyrrha.

"Jaune broke the course."

Ren then stared at Jaune.

"It was an accident!"

"Neat!" Nora declared before pondering. "Hmm… Is this something we should celebrate? Can we have muffins?!"

Pyrrha could feel the normal Nora headache starting up, happily wailing against the Jaune-induced headache already making her feel like her eyes were about to pop out of her head with Magnhild.

Today was not a good day.

-o-o-o-

"Yo. What's eating you, Weiss-cake?" Yang Xiao Long asked as she grinned at the still faintly blushing Weiss as she almost threw herself into the room. "Some salty goodness I hope?"

Blake Belladonna glanced at the widely grinning Yang then looked at Weiss, before focusing back on her book.

"… Winter, and Jaune, and dancing shirtless Jaune and… Gaaaaaaaaaah~!" Weiss stomped her foot and growled. "And stupid sexy and horribly wrong thoughts!"

"You had my attention at dancing, shirtless Jaune," Yang stated, appearing next to Weiss in a burst of speed. "Tell Mama-Yang aaaaaaaall about it."

Weiss groaned and threw her scroll at Yang. "It's all there, you horn dog."

"Score!" Yang cheered before quickly looking through Weiss' scroll and then blinking as the music started playing. "… Hey when did you start dancing, Weiss? Damn, those moves…"

"That's not me." Weiss stated flatly with a glower. "That's my sister, Winter."

"…" Yang stared at Weiss and then paused the video, holding it up in front of her as she looked from the scroll to Weiss and back. "Hey, Blake! Take a look at this!"

"Must I?" Blake asked as she glanced at Yang out of the corner of her eye.

"Totally," Yang agreed cheerfully.

Sighing, Blake put down her book and looked the scroll, then at Weiss. "Well, they are…"

"Nuh uh. Completely," Yang corrected, pointing features one by one. "Other than the whole, ya know, side ponytail and scar ours has."

"… Why is it that the only one who can actually tell that my sister and I look _nothing_ alike is the biggest idiot among us?!" Weiss stated with a groan, then listened as the music resumed from the phone.

"Huh." Blake blinked a bit. "Is that…"

"Tango," Yang stated as she stared at the screen. "Damn, who knew Jaune-boy was so limber?"

"It is… intriguing," Blake allowed as she nodded her head, watching over Yang's shoulder.

"Will you two quit drooling over my scroll?!" Weiss demanded, snatching the scroll away from them. "You can both look it up fine on your own scrolls!"

Yang and Blake looked at each other for a moment before Blake sighed and pulled out her own. "Fine."

After a few moments they both then blinked and Yang asked. "Hey, Weiss did you know there are sites about your sister and…"

"Yes." Weiss stated flatly.

"And that there are lists about why they should…" She continued.

"I'm _aware._ " Weiss growled.

"And they have a lot of…" Blake pointed to one particular image.

"Well, damn," Yang whistled. "Who knew the princess would look so good with…"

"Winter and I look _nothing_ alike!" Weiss snapped out.

"I know. Apparently there's a whole 'keep it in the family' subset," Yang agreed with a grin as she turned the scroll towards Weiss. "Scar and ponytail."

Weiss stared, mouth hanging open at the image, before her voice rose to a terrifying pitch. "WHAT?!"

"Um…" Ruby Rose stuck her head into the room from the hall. "Is everything ok in here?"

"It's WONDERFUL! Terrific! FANTASTIC!"

"… Are you sure?" Ruby asked as she looked at Weiss carefully. "We could talk about…"

"There is NOTHING to talk about!" Weiss declared. "So _what_ if Jaune is a world class dance prodigy…!"

Yang held up Blake's scroll, showing a video of Jaune going through a highly complex dance routine over Weiss's shoulder so Ruby could see.

"So what if he apparently hides a body sculpted by the gods of eye candy…!"

Yang played with the scroll, then showed Ruby a picture of a shirtless Jaune apparently in the middle of a grinding dance maneuver.

"So what if people are apparently obsessed with pairing him with my sister...!"

Ruby blinked at the series of images Yang quickly showed her on the scroll, still blushing from shirtless Jaune.

"I don't even care about the fact that I'm just now learning he's the same guy that my sister used to write graphic smut about what she wanted to do with his body!"

Everyone froze at that as Yang quickly searched through the scroll, found nothing, and then shrugged and looked at Weiss. "Something you want to tell us, Weiss?"

"… Can we please, please ignore that last bit?" Weiss asked hopefully, face a bright cherry color.

"Neeeewp!" Yang stated as she tossed Blake her scroll back and slung an arm over Weiss' shoulder. "So, tell us all about these lurid writings. We must know."

"Lurid?" Blake asked as she arched a brow at Yang.

"Completely and totally appropriate in this situation," Yang responded with a grin.

"… I suppose." Blake allowed before shaking her head and sighing.

"I think not!" Weiss stated as she squirmed out from under Yang's arm.

"Ok," Yang stated cheerfully, before tossing a scroll to Blake who blinked and caught it reflexively. "Blake! What's her sister's number?"

"… why are you involving me in this?" Blake asked as she just looked at Yang before vanishing as Weiss tackled her position.

"Because of that?" Yang stated as she gestured towards Weiss growling from Blake's former position.

"Give that back!" Weiss demanded.

"… You do realize this is only going to make her more upset, yes?" Blake stated idly as Weiss jumped on a glyph and launched herself at where Blake was perched on Ruby's bed.

"Eh." Yang shrugged her shoulders. "She'll get over it, eventually."

"Guys," Ruby started to state as she watched, wide eyed as Weiss came precariously close to destroying the ropes holding her bed up.

"Give it back!" Weiss demanded again as she formed another glyph right next to another one of the ropes anchoring the bed to the ceiling and launched herself back down at Blake, who, predictably, turned out to be an afterimage from her semblance, sending Weiss into Blake's own bed.

"Guys!" Ruby said more urgently as she watched the chaos unfold while Yang grinned broadly and recorded the entire incident on her scroll.

"Yang, if you want this so badly, why aren't you helping?" Blake asked as she looked at her partner.

"Do you have any idea how many hits I'm going to get off of this video?" Yang countered back with a smirk.

"Give it back!" Weiss repeated before pulling out her rapier, holding up a familiar book. "Or else!"

"… You wouldn't!" Blake hissed as her eyes narrowed as Weiss held up her copy of Ninjas of Love.

And suddenly the red dust came to life in Weiss' weapon, flames licking around the edges of the blade. "Try me!"

"You monster!" Blake half accused as she stared at Weiss in horror. "That book never did anything to you!"

"Give me back my scroll and nothing has to be hurt!" Weiss growled back.

"ENOUGH!" Ruby suddenly shouted out, stomping her foot on the ground and glaring at the other three girls. "Yang! Stop taking video!"

"Aww. Come on, Sis…" Yang pouted out with a frown.

"Now!" Ruby stated as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Fine," Yang huffed and tossed her scroll on to her bed with a grumble.

"Weiss! No flaming weapons of destruction in the dorm!" Ruby then affixed her glare onto her partner.

"But she…" Weiss started to protest only to be glared at by Ruby and back down. "Fine."

When the flame went out Ruby just _looked_ at Blake. "Scroll."

And Blake silently tossed it to Weiss, who quickly caught it, dropping the book in the process.

"Now. We are going to go get ice cream and cookies," Ruby stated simply. "And you're all paying."

All three of them started to protest at that. They knew how many cookies Ruby would eat.

"Nuh uh. Cookies and ice cream," Ruby said stubbornly. "Now, march!"

And hanging their heads, all three girls did just that. Taking up the lead, Ruby shook her head and sighed with a huff. Well, at least she had managed to con them into paying for cookies.

She smiled brightly at that.

-o-o-o-

Pyrrha smiled as she looked over the plan in front of her. It had taken her all night. Well, all weekend, really, but she finally had a plan for the next part of Jaune's training. Looking over it one last time, she almost giggled at it.

With a gesture, dozens of empty cans of energy drinks surrounding her rose up and then, with a slight clench of her fist, all crunched down into small balls that were quickly flying into the waste bin.

Jaune obviously had potential. More than she knew about if Professor Ozpin was anything to go by. So, she needed to make sure she drew out that potential to its fullest.

While her current methods were obviously working… slowly, but working, she now had to limit herself to more… esoteric training.

She frowned then.

And she wasn't allowed to use bees.

She would not pout, but she had to huff a bit in annoyance. Honestly, how did they expect her to work without bees? They were the perfect training aid.

Oh well, she would make do. Jaune had plenty of aura to work with.

Now all she had to do was get started.

-o-o-o-

Jaune blinked a moment, and wondered why all of a sudden Beacon felt exactly like his home did. In fact, it was to such a point, that he suddenly found himself expecting his sisters to suddenly pop out from around the corner. It was… odd he had to admit.

Now if he could only figure out why…


End file.
